Benue guber: Idoma renew battle to produce first governor after 50 years

Forum 2 months ago

Benue guber: Idoma renew battle to produce first governor after 50 years

By February 2026, Benue State will mark 50 years since its creation, a milestone expected to be celebrated across the state.

However, for the Idoma people of Benue South Senatorial District (Zone C), the anniversary is as much a moment of reflection as it is of celebration.

Fifty years after the state was carved out of the old Benue-Plateau State by the military administration of the late Gen Murtala Mohammed, no Idoma person has ever been elected governor of Benue State.

This reality has continued to fuel deep‑seated feelings of political exclusion, marginalisation and injustice among the Idoma, the state’s second‑largest ethnic group.

With the 2027 governorship election approaching, the long‑standing agitation has re‑emerged with renewed urgency, forcing political actors and stakeholders to confront a question many say Benue has avoided for decades: can an Idoma person finally become the state’s number one citizen?

Since the creation of Benue State in 1976, political power at the highest level has remained firmly in the hands of Tiv‑speaking areas.

In the civilian era, Aper Aku (1979–1983), a Tiv man from Ikyobo, in Ushongo Local Government Area served as the first elected governor.

Very Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu, another Tiv, from Shangev-Tiev district, in Konshisha LGA, became governor of Benue State, on 2 January 1992, elected on the Social Democratic Party platform.

He left office after the military coup in November 1993 in which General Sani Abacha came to power.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the pattern has remained unbroken, with George Akume serving from 1999 to 2007, Gabriel Suswam from 2007 to 2015, Samuel Ortom from 2015 to 2023, and Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia from 2023 to the present, all hailing from Tiv‑dominated Zones A and B.

For many Idoma leaders, this uninterrupted chain of leadership has become the central grievance behind calls for power rotation and political inclusion.

A retired military officer and elder statesman from Idoma land, Gen. Geoffrey Ejiga (rtd), once captured the sentiment this way, saying that since Benue State’s creation nearly 50 years ago, the Idoma people have never been given the opportunity to produce a governor and that this persistent exclusion cannot continue indefinitely.

According to Ejiga, “Benue in my opinion needs to try an ldoma governor to see if it will improve the fortunes of the State as the Tiv governors from 1999 till date have not improved developmental fortunes of the state.”

He lamented that Benue with all its potentials remained the least developed state in Nigeria.

“The unjust deprivation of the ldoma people from leadership is bound to create insecurity in the state as very soon the ldoma youths will revolt creating a massive problem for the Tiv governors and the federal government will be called to help,” General Ejiga warned in the build up to the 2023 elections.

Even the Tiv people are not unaware of this marginalization.

Before his demise, elder-statesman, Wantaregh Paul Unongo, stressed the need for the emergence of an Idoma governor in Benue State.